Mennonite Weekly Review

Feb. 8 issue

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  Photo by Mark Beach/MCC

  Once more, for the gold

  Cindy Klassen pauses for a moment before she hits the ice.

  “I always pray before every race, and my prayer is the same every time — that I would skate to the best of my ability, and do it all for the glory of God,” the Olympic speedskater wrote in an e-mail. “He has given me the talent to skate, and I don’t want to waste it.

• MCC engineers assess Haiti buildings

  AKRON, Pa. — When the structural engineers working with Mennonite Central Committee in Haiti evaluate the soundness of earthquake-damaged buildings, their classification is very practical: Is it safe to use?

• MCC responds to Nigeria violence

  AKRON, Pa. — Mennonite Central Committee is planning a relief effort to respond to the needs of thousands of people forced from their homes by violence in the city of Jos and outlying areas of Nigeria’s Plateau State.

• World’s oldest Mennonite?

  WINKLER, Man. — When Elizabeth Buhler was born, Queen Victoria ruled England, the Czar led Russia, the Boer War broke out and Manitoba was 29 years old.

• Health care plan begins for pastors, employees

  NEWTON, Kan. — The Corinthian Plan, the new health insurance plan of Mennonite Church USA, went into effect Jan. 1.

• Report advances MC USA alignment

  A consultant for Mennonite Church USA has called for giving greater prominence to area conferences.

• Loving people into God’s realm

  HESSTON, Kan. — Irene Weaver didn’t want “a lot of hoopla” for her 100th birthday.

• NCAA honors Bluffton baseball team

  BLUFFTON, Ohio — Bluffton University’s 2007 baseball team received the Inspiration Award at the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Honors Celebration Jan. 15 in Atlanta.

• New service unit will spring forth in Colorado

  COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — This fall, Service Adventure participants will have a new location for service, community and maybe even skiing.

• Technology leader retires after 50 years

  NEWTON, Kan. — Though he has no official training in electronics, Larry Becker has led the church through five decades of technological change.

• Gifts to MDS help replace stolen tools

  RAMONA, Calif. — Bert Hamm returned to the Mennonite Disaster Service camp site Jan. 5 after a Christmas break and noticed something unusual.

• Comfortable with the unconventional

  LANCASTER, Pa. — The conventional red-brick building at 328 W. Orange St. houses a Mennonite church that’s anything but conventional.

• Choice Books sales fall; displays up

  HARRISONBURG, Va. — Sales of Choice Books, an Anabaptist-related book-selling ministry, declined last year for the first time since 1985.

• Seminar teaches how to talk about difficult issues

  HARRISONBURG, Va. — David Brubaker believes the congregation is the best place to discuss and respond constructively to important community issues.

• Laurelville retreat prepares worship leaders for Lent’s journey

  MOUNT PLEASANT, Pa. — As pastors and worship leaders gathered to prepare for Lent, they had a chance to hear from a leading voice in the Emergent movement.

Feb. 1 issue

• Amid loss, help from neighbors

  Even as they mourn losses, Haitian Anabaptists and service workers in the country are aiding their neighbors.

• MCC plans long-term in Haiti

  Mennonite Central Committee has begun a multimillion-dollar response to the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.

• MB nurse among dead in Haiti

  It was to be her fourth time serving in Haiti as a nurse.

• Haitians hold fast to faith after quake

  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Did God abandon Haiti?

• Righting an upside-down world

  HESSTON, Kan. — For Jeff Blackburn, learning of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti was like reliving the 2007 tornado that destroyed most of his hometown.

• Coach’s legacy

  HOLMES COUNTY, Ohio — Marvin Blanks, an orator from Detroit, presented Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech to an Amish and Mennonite community.

• Message still rings true, King friend says at Bethel

  NORTH NEWTON, KAN. — In 1960, Martin Lu­ther King Jr. stood on the stage in Memorial Hall at Bethel College and told his listeners they needed to be “maladjusted.”

• Goshen to begin playing national anthem before athletic events

  GOSHEN, Ind. — Goshen College announced Jan. 22 it will play an instrumental version of the national anthem before select sports events on campus, followed by prayer.

• Democracy needs ‘loving community’

  NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Although Vincent Harding had been invited to Bethel College to give the keynote address at a program honoring Martin Luther King Jr., his main purpose for being on campus Jan. 16-18, he said, was not to speak but to listen.

• Prayer service planned for Bolivia rape survivors

  WINNIPEG, Man. — An inter-Mennonite group of volunteers will sponsor a prayer and lament service for the women and girls who have been victims of sexual assaults and abuse in Manitoba Colony, Bolivia.

• Dutch urge witness on Afghan war

  ELKHART, Ind., and NEWTON, Kan. — Leaders of the Dutch Mennonite Church sent a letter to Mennonite Church USA in December, expressing concern about President Barack Obama’s call for the U.S. military’s escalation of troops in Afghanistan.

• Dyck radiated joy, drama of serving for Christ

  One contemplates in awe the story of Peter J. Dyck, his life with Christ, a journey of peace and compassion through the most violent century in human history. (Dyck died Jan. 4 at the age of 95.)

• Korean Anabaptist Fellowship founded

  UPLAND, Calif. — From the seeds of shared stories, the Korean Anabaptist Fellowship was born Nov. 19-21.

• Ways to make Scripture the center of worship

  How much of your worship service is spent reading and hearing Scripture?

• Bethel’s sixth president dies at 101

  NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Bethel College has lost a man who bridged most of the college’s history.

• Live kingdom values, not world’s

  HARRISONBURG, Va. — God’s kingdom looks radically different from the world’s, especially when it comes to violence.

• During the earthquake, where was God?

  Watching news of the earthquake in Haiti, I was unable to do much more than lament, pray and question.

• Facts dispel church-state ‘confusion’

  WASHINGTON — Legal experts from the left and right hope a new statement of shared principles on religious expression in public life will lead to fewer church-state lawsuits.

• EMU commends servant leaders

  HARRISONBURG, Va. — Eastern Mennonite University recognized two couples Jan. 20 for their many years of servant leadership.

• New York children learn about China

  ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Children at Rochester Area Mennonite Fellowship experienced China in new ways.

• More use of statement on conflict encouraged

  Lavonne van der Zwaag and her 16-year-old daughter, Anna, wore pink last July at the Mennonite Church USA convention.

• Calgary churches advertise peace

  Six Calgary, Alta., Mennonite churches countered consumer-driven ads over the holiday season with a “Live for Peace” campaign.

• Goshen president calls for new school of thought

  GOSHEN, Ind. — The time for “yes” is here, said Goshen College President Jim Brenneman.

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